How do you know God loves you?

In Malachi 1:1-5, God's people ask a heartbreaking question: "In what way have You loved us?" Dr. Toby Holt opens the book of Malachi and God's surprising answer.

The people had drifted from God and doubted His love. God answers not by pointing to the Exodus, but to two brothers: "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated." God set His saving love on Jacob before the twins were born — unearned, based on His own choice. He proves it in history: Jacob's line was restored, Esau's nation wiped away.

Questions this study answers:

1. Why did the people doubt God's love? They had wandered from Him and measured His love by their circumstances. When life was hard, they assumed God had stopped loving them.

2. What did God mean by "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated"? He had set His saving, covenant love on Jacob by His own choice, before the brothers were born — shaping the history of their two nations.

3. What does this teach about God's love for His people? That it is unearned and rooted in God's grace, not our performance. Because He chose to love His people, His love does not fail even when they stray.

"'I have loved you,' says the LORD… 'Yet Jacob I have loved; but Esau I have hated.'" — Malachi 1:2-3 (NKJV)

Dr. Toby Holt is President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Find more verse-by-verse Bible teaching at newgeneva.org; support this ministry at newgeneva.org/give.

You don't love us. That was the complaint of God's people.

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However, God did love them, and He had proved it time and time again.

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We'll consider that love in part one of our new series from Malachi.

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Do you think that God is happy with the modern church?

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You know, God's people, whether they are in Israel or whether they're in the church across the centuries,

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God's people have always thought that they were doing pretty well God's people always thought if

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you look in the old testament God's people always thought that they were they were rocking the house

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they were doing good work that God was pleased that they were being faithful and yet so often

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so often God sent them prophets to tell them that they were not and to point out the various ways

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in which they had departed sometimes radically and sometimes without even being aware of it

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by which they had departed from his word his intentions his mandates his glory you know

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sometimes like a sickly man who beats his chest and says, I'm in the best shape of my life.

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Sometimes that's been God's people. They beat their chest. They said, everything's going great.

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And meanwhile, God has been displeased. This was true in the time of Malachi. This was true in the

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time of Malachi. In the time of Malachi, the people thought they were doing all right. See, they'd

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recently returned about a hundred years prior from Babylon, from the exile. They'd started the

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rebuilding. The temple was up. Sure, it wasn't as big a temple or as grand a temple as it used to be,

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but it was a temple. They had walls. They had rituals. The sacrifices had started up. On some

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level, they thought they were doing what they were called to do. On some level, they felt

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satisfied, maybe even proud of their accomplishments, proud of how they were doing. Now, things weren't

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totally ideal. They were still under the authority of the Persians, but at least they were back home

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doing what they thought they were called to do and yet they were not and god told them as much

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through the prophet malachi and the six disputations that we will find in this book over the course of

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the next six weeks see while they were engaging at this point with a lot of the outward forms of

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worship while they had the sacrifices in the temple and externally they were doing a lot of

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things that they thought god liked much as the pharisees would just a few centuries later just

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as they had a lot of the outward forms of worship, it was increasingly clear, I think to God and to

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Malachi and some of the prophets at least, that the people's hearts were poisoned. The priests

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were spineless. The marriages of the people were collapsing. Society was going down the tubes.

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And if you read the breadth of Malachi, which we will in the next number of weeks, each one of

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those categories will be addressed. God will call his people out. They will sit there and say,

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we couldn't be doing better, and God will say no. And God will look to redirect them. And as he does

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so, as he does so, the people are going to rebel. And we're going to see that in today's text. The

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people are going to rebel against what God tells them, because they don't like, they don't like

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what he has to say, and they don't like the way that he's been approaching things. You see,

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in spite of all the ways that they were messing up, some of which we'll cover today, they had the

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goal. They had the goal to look at God and say, it's your fault. Say, it's on you. They say this.

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They say, you don't love us. You don't love us. You don't care for us. You're not coming through

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for us. There's a petulant cry of God's people over and against the reality of God's provision.

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Here we are doing our best, the people are going to say. We're doing our best. And God,

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you don't seem to care. You don't seem to care how we're doing. Now, the truth is,

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they weren't doing anywhere near their best israel the church over the centuries sometimes we fool

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ourselves into thinking we are giving god our best and reality is radically different let me

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give you one example which will cover i think next week which will cover with regards to malachi's

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time the sacrifices had restarted right the temple was there the sacrificial system was back in place

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and people were bringing their sacrifices now were they bringing their best well no no those of you

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here at the nine o'clock. No, that's absolutely, that was not the case. They were not bringing

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their best at all. They were called through the Old Testament. They were called to give their best,

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the first fruits, the best of what they had, the perfect lamb. Remember the Passover lamb,

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the perfect lamb. They were called to give good sacrifices, but what were they doing?

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Well, they were giving sacrifices, all right, but they were giving the worst that they had.

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They were giving the three-legged, cross-eyed, buck-toothed lamb. That's what they were giving.

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Was God going to be satisfied with that? I think you know, I think you know the answer.

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God was not satisfied.

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Reverence that they should have had had been replaced by reticence.

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Adoration that they should have had was replaced by apathy.

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And they thought they could appease God, as if that's the object.

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They thought they could appease God through that.

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God was not pleased.

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God was not appeased.

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God knew they were mailing in their worship, and he was not happy.

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And that's what we're looking at in today's text.

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All right, if you would, let's return to our passage.

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I'm going to read verses 1 through the first part of verse 2, and then we'll just kind of plow our way forward.

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Okay, verse 1.

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The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.

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Let me stop there for a moment.

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The phrase, the burden of the word of the Lord, that should catch your ears.

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Should the word of God, should the prophecy of God be burdensome?

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Well, in a sense, it was to the prophets.

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In a sense, they were called to give some of the most weighty statements to people with the most unwilling ears.

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They were called to give heavy truth to people who might kill them as a result of preaching or teaching that truth.

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The burden of the Lord, the heaviness of this truth, this is what they were called to bring.

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So the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.

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Verse 2, I have loved you, says the Lord, and yet you say, how?

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And yet you say, in what way have you loved us?

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What way have you loved us?

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You know, if you tell someone, I love you, I'm sure you've said it to someone in times past,

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perhaps a spouse, a child, or what have you. If you tell someone, I love you, what words are you

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hoping to hear back? I love you too. You throw that out, you're dating someone, you have a fiance

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or someone, you say, I love you. You sure hope to hear, I love you too. I love you as a response.

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I love you back. But what if you were to say, I love you, and the response that you heard was,

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no you don't what if you told someone i love you and they shot back at you no you don't you don't

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love me you never have in essence that's what god's people were telling him in verse two see

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god's people then and now have short memories malachi's day the israelites they were looking

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at their present circumstances, which were not bad, but which were not great. Things were going

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good in some contexts and bad in others. They're looking at their circumstances and they thought

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that the hardships that they were experiencing proved this, that God didn't love them. And if

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he did love them, they wouldn't be going through it. You and I might fall into that trap given the

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hardships that we're currently facing in the world around us. We might think that God doesn't love us

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or he's forgotten us or ignored us or what have you. That's what the people were accusing God of

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here, accusing God of. Never mind, never mind his long history of coming through for them.

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Never mind his history of covenantal faithfulness to the people. The Israelites had a what have you

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done for me lately mentality, in spite of all that he'd done. And good gravy, if they were being

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halfway honest, they would know this. He had done a lot, even in their recent past. He had preserved

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them and sustained them in the midst of Babylon and taken them out just as he said he would,

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just at the time he said he would, and he had replanted them, restarted them, the walls were up,

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the temple was there. Good golly, how in the world, even in the recent past, let alone looking back

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to the Exodus or times as far in their past, even the recent past, they had plenty of reason to see

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God's provision. And yet, and yet, no you don't, is there a cry when God tells them that he loves

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them? In what way have you loved us? Oh, how selective our memories can be. In what way have

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you loved us. If you're a parent, you feel that. Ouch. Imagine you're a parent. You've provided

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for your children. Imagine you're a parent, and from day one to day now, you have been providing

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for your kids. You've given them food and shelter and love and care and nurture and education and

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edification, all these things. You'd give the shirt off your back. You'd give your own life

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for your child. Then one day your child looks at you and says, you don't love me. In spite

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of the manifest evidence to the contrary.

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How would you feel?

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How would you feel to hear those words?

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As a parent, that's a punch in the gut.

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It's a punch in the gut.

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It would grieve you immeasurably.

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Do you think the heart of God can be grieved?

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We see this. We see this in the New Testament.

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The Spirit is grieved by the sins of His people.

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And surely an accusation like this

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was bound to grieve the heart of God.

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Let's see his response.

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Let's see how God responds to his people in verses 3 through 5.

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Verse 3.

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Actually, let me start at the last part of verse 2.

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Verse 2.

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Was not Esau Jacob's brother, says the Lord?

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This is interesting.

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The people just accused him of not being faithful, not loving them, not caring for them.

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And his response is this.

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Was not Esau Jacob's brother, says the Lord?

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Yet, yet, Jacob I have loved.

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but Esau I've hated and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals

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of the wilderness all right let's stop there for a moment at this point God had a lot of options

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right the people were saying you haven't been faithful now if a child is a parent you don't

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love me your immediate reaction might be to come up with what about this or this or this look at

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what I'm doing for you look how I care for you God had a lot of things he could have pointed to

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He could have pointed just about anything.

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He could have gone back to the Exodus and how he saved his people, brought them out from Pharaoh.

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He could have gone to this parting of the Red Sea.

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He could have gone to the walls of Jericho falling down.

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They're taking over their promised land, the many battles and victories that they had won.

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The fact that they were no longer in Babylon but were now in their own land.

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There's any number of things at this moment, any number of examples he could have given them to say,

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Aha, what about this?

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I love you based on X, Y, Z.

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There's a lot of examples he could have used.

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And yet, the one he chose, the one he chose goes back to Genesis 25.

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And it's the example of God's love for Jacob, but not for Esau.

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Why this example?

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Why this evidence?

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Why does he bring this forward?

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Now, who are Jacob and Esau?

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Think through in your mind.

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Who are Jacob and Esau?

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Well, most of us may remember, may remember that they were twins.

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That they were the children of Isaac, grandchildren of Abraham.

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And Scripture tells us that while they were in the womb,

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before they were even born, before they had done right or wrong,

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that God had looked at these children,

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and God had looked at Jacob and placed his saving love

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and covenantal promises upon Jacob and not upon Esau,

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even though Esau would be the one who would be born first.

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Now, why? Why did God choose Jacob?

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Why did God choose Jacob?

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Well, I don't know, and neither do you.

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We don't know why God chose Jacob.

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For his own good pleasure is the simplest answer.

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And yet, both here in Malachi 1 and then later in Romans 9,

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we see that God placed his saving love upon Jacob.

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This is testified to as a truth, but not, not, not, not upon Esau.

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God loved Jacob, and he hated Esau.

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And hated doesn't mean he loved him less.

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Hate means hate.

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Now, the purpose of our study today, for those of you who are waiting with bated breath

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for me to get into election and predestination and the like,

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I don't have enough time to do all that here today.

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but those concepts are fully on display here in verses 2 and 3. However, even without diving into

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the theology, the deep pool of theology that exists in these verses, even without all of us

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even agreeing on election or predestination and the like, we can all still yet deduce an obvious

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implication from God's words here. And the implication is this, that the people of Israel

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who came, who were descended from Jacob, had been treated with a love and a care

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that the others had not, that the children of Esau had not.

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The descendants of Jacob had been granted every advantage under the sun.

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Every bit of care, up to and including God stopping the sun in the sky.

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The descendants of Jacob had been given every advantage under the sun.

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God treated them like loving members of his own family, like dear children.

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He always had.

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And he had blessed them in ways that no other nation could claim.

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That no other nation under the sun could claim.

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Jacob, I have loved.

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That's not a hallmark phrase.

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That means something.

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When God says, I love you, given that his love is infinite,

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that is a stronger statement than all the other I love you in the world combined.

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Jacob, I have loved, God said.

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And furthermore, there was ample reams of evidence to testify to this fact.

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He makes this claim, I love you, and yet he makes another claim here.

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I do not, have not, will not love Esau.

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Specifically in verse 3, God referenced Jacob's brother Esau by saying this,

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Esau, Esau, I have hated and laid waste his mountains and his heritage

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for the jackals of the wilderness.

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See, Jacob's descendants, they were known as Israel, broadly speaking.

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Let me ask you a question, a thinking question here.

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Does anyone remember what Esau's descendants were known as?

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If we have the Israelites who came from Jacob, who were Esau's descendants?

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The Edomites.

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Right.

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The Edomites.

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I asked that question earlier.

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It was raining so bad I couldn't hear the answer.

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But Edomites, exactly.

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Esau's relatives or descendants were known as the Edomites.

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Now, let's say we were to roll out a globe or a map or something here.

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And I was to ask you.

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You can play this game at home too.

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If I was to ask you to look at a map and find Israel, find Israel, find the nation of Israel on that map or on that globe, do you think you could?

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I hope so, probably.

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It might take some a little longer than others, but we'd probably be able to find Israel right there on the map there in the Middle East.

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Now, what if I was to ask you something different?

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What if I said, hey, can you find for me the nation of Edom on the map?

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Who can do that?

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no hands. Now, why is that? Because there is no nation of Edom. There is no nation of Edom. It's

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a trick question. History shows us that the Edomites were wiped off the map, wiped off the

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map. The Edomites did not fare too well. The descendants of Esau did not fare well. Over the

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centuries, the Edomites were engaged in a lot of conflict, conflict that generally turned out

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poorly in jeremiah 49 we read this prophecy about what was going to happen to them edom shall become

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a horror everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all of its

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disasters that sounds pretty rough and in due time that's exactly what happened in due time that's

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exactly what happened they were consumed by their adversaries never to return to their their homeland

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so to speak in the same way that Israel was able to return to Jerusalem

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now we've heard that prophecy with regards to the Edomites

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hissing and horror and the like but by contrast listen to the prophecy that Isaiah

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made to Jacob's descendants to the Israelites proof that God loved them

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is this but now says the Lord he who created you O Jacob he who

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formed you O Israel fear not for I've redeemed you I call you

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by name you are mine when you

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pass through the waters, I will be with you. When you pass through the rivers, they will not overwhelm

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you. Israel, Edom, two different sets of progeny, two different nations, two different outcomes.

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Jacob I have loved. Esau I have hated. All right, to make this hatred more clear, so to speak, let's

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look at verses three and four together. Verse three, but Esau I have hated and laid waste to

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his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness. Even though

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Edom has said, even though Edom has said, we have been impoverished, but we will return

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and build the desolate places. Thus says the Lord of hosts, they may

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build, but I will throw down.

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You know, history suggests to us that about 300 years

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before the time of Christ, some of the descendants

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of Esau, some of the Edomites tried to return to their homeland, tried to rebuild

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their society just as the Israelites had done Jerusalem. But whereas Israel's rebuilding would

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grow, would continue in time, whereas the walls and the temple and like would be erected, whereas

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that nation would return and grow, the Edomite descendants would be thrown down. The Persians,

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the Jews under Joseph Maccabees, ultimately the Romans, they would come against the Edomites and

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assure that the Edomites were never able to rebuild. Their places were thrown down and they

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were truly a hissing before the nations.

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Even in the days of Malachi, the disfavor of the Edomites

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and their rough situation was well known,

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which is why God reminds them of that in verse 4.

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This is why God uses this as his primary example for his love.

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He says, look what's happened to you over the centuries.

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Jacob, his children, the nation that came from this one man,

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look at what I have done.

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Look at the promises I've fulfilled.

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Show me one example where I haven't fulfilled that which I promised.

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It's all been fulfilled.

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It's all gone for the benefit of my people.

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Jacob I have loved.

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And yet Esau, what's the proof that I have not placed my saving love on Esau?

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Well, look what happened to them.

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Look at what has happened to them.

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You know, this was true even of the original Jacob and the original Esau.

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You know the proof that God really loved Jacob, the man?

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Even though he was kind of a rascal, especially early on in his days,

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you know what the proof was?

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God came after him.

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God disciplined him even.

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God refined Jacob.

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He was a different man by the end of his days

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than he was at the start

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when he was stealing his brother's blessing and the like.

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God worked with Jacob.

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God sanctified Jacob.

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God walked with Jacob.

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God wrestled with Jacob.

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This is the proof of his love for Jacob,

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just as a parent loves a child.

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What was God's relationship with Esau

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in the time since?

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What did God do with Esau?

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Nothing, so far as we know.

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God let Esau be Esau, and as another Baptist preacher puts it this way, God let Esau be Esau,

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and cut the rope on Esau, let Esau go off, go fat and happy, die and go to hell.

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That's the story of Esau. There's no sign of God saving love upon Esau, no sign that God pursued

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Esau. Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated. The Israelites knew their heritage. Even if they

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didn't think about it too often. They knew of it. They knew God had preserved the people.

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And yet, in their moment of trial, they forgot it, or they ignored what they knew to be true,

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and they claimed that God didn't love them after all, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary.

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All right, let's build on that as we look at our final verses, verses 4 through 5.

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Even though Edom has said, we have been impoverished, but we will return and build

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the desolate places. Thus says the Lord to hosts, they may build, but I will throw down. They shall

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be called the territory of wickedness and the people against whom the Lord will have indignation

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forever. Your eyes shall see and you shall say, the Lord is magnified beyond the border

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of Israel. Now, as I said a few moments ago, I don't know why God loved Jacob and not Esau. It's

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up to his good pleasure why he does anything that he does. I don't know why he loves you and I,

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But I do know this, there is a big difference.

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A big difference between the words love and hate.

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There is a big difference.

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If you were to ask an Edomite, over the centuries, times past,

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if you were to ask him what it was like to incur God's hatred upon him,

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he would tell you that it is no small thing.

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There's no trifling thing.

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There are consequences thereof.

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He would say God deals with those that he hates.

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He deals with them.

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What does Hebrews 10 say?

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Hebrews 10 says this.

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It says, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

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It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

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For some in the hearing of my voice here this morning, that is a warning.

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It's meant to be.

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It's a warning of what it's like to be outside of the kingdom.

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It's not a small and a trifling thing.

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However, to the people of Malachi's day, it was not only a warning,

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but also to us, it's a promise.

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To them and to us, there's a warning inherent in this, but there's also a promise.

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You see, while God's indignation would be forever upon the Edomites,

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not just for like a year or a season, but forever upon those that are outside the kingdom,

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those who are rebels and enemies of the throne,

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by contrast, God treats his children as children,

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with love and with tenderness and care.

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And even when they are faithless, as God's people often would be,

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he's faithful and he draws them back to himself.

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In other words, just as God's hatred for Esau was real, and it was,

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and that's why we've had to linger on it, so was God's love for Israel.

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Just as his hatred was real, so was his love.

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And you and I, as children of the Most High God,

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we are recipients of that love and that grace by an infinite measure.

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God's love for us is real.

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And it's not based on our inherent lovability.

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We didn't earn it.

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God didn't look down upon us and say, you know, he's just, I can't help myself.

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I love that guy.

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That's not how it works.

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That wasn't true of Jacob.

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It's not true of you and I.

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It's not based on our inherent lovability because we got none.

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It's based on his sovereign good pleasure.

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He chooses who he chooses and he places his saving love upon such a one.

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And that love does not dissipate.

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That love does not depart even as we depart from him.

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Even as we are prone to wander, sheep prone to flee our shepherd.

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Even as we do so, he calls us back to himself.

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Why?

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Because he loves us.

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Just as we pursue our own children and demonstrate that love.

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And for century after century, God had proven this.

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Which made their accusation so hard to bear.

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For century after century, God had proved this.

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That his love abided for them.

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You know, earlier at the 9 o'clock, I asked this question.

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I asked if anyone had been married for 50 years.

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I don't think I got any hands this morning.

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I've got a few at 40.

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Do we have anyone here who's been married for 30 years or more?

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Yeah?

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I've got a few.

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I've got a few.

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30 years or more.

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You know, hitting a 30-year or a 40-year or a 50-year, even a 5-year anniversary can speak well of the relationship that we have with our spouse.

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It can speak well of the covenant, the faithfulness, the promises and the like that we have made.

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If that's true, if hitting a 30, 40, 50 year anniversary speaks to covenant love that we have between a groom and a bride,

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then how much more is God's love testified to by countless centuries and centuries of doting on a rebellious and adulterous spouse?

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A rebellious and adulterous bride who is constantly forsaking him for almost anyone and anything else.

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How much more is this covenant faithfulness testified to here?

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How have you loved us, the people of Israel inquired?

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How have you loved us?

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How dare they?

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How dare they?

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If they were halfway honest about God's history and love and care and devotion

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and covenant faithfulness to them,

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they would never even think such a thing, let alone ask it.

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This shows you the hardness of the hearts

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and why there was a heart problem at place here in their time.

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How have you loved us?

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As if there wasn't an answer to that question.

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As if God couldn't come up with manifold ways.

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How have you loved us?

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How can you even ask me that, says God.

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All right, let's look to wrap up with a few closing thoughts.

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As we said at the outset this morning,

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the book of Malachi, as we've seen today

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and as we'll see in the coming weeks,

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it was written to people that although they were blessed in many ways,

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although they had the structure of worship,

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although they were doing many of the outward things they were called to do,

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at the same time, their hearts had departed.

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At the same time, as they looked in the mirror

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and thought they were doing just fine,

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They were not.

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They were not.

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Their worship had gone hollow.

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Their priests, as we said before, they were spineless.

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You've got to be a spineless priest to allow anyone to put a three-legged diseased lamb on the altar of God.

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The priests were spineless.

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The people were apathetic.

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Even as they had the external practices of worship.

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And this can be true even in the modern church.

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Even as we sometimes have the external practices of worship, that's not the most central matter.

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The most central matter is where is our heart?

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Well, in the days of Malachi, the heart's head departed.

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The heart's head departed.

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The people had forgotten God's love for them.

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And when the chips were down in their life, they had gotten angry at him.

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I don't know what's going to happen in the world around us in the time to come.

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This is an odd season, to say the least.

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It may get worse before it gets better.

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And we may even be inclined to ask, where is God?

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We may be inclined even to get upset or angry at his lack of provision.

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And yet he has been faithful, faithful, faithful, faithful.

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He will not let us down.

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He may let our circumstances grow a bit rough at times.

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He may bring a season of refinement in.

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He always has done so across the history of Israel and of the church.

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He may bring a season of refinement in.

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He may allow difficulty, even persecution, to enter in.

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And yet these things are just for a season, limited in scope, not forever.

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Better days are coming.

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And even the hard times have a good purpose, have a good outcome, just as they always have.

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Now, again, in our own day, in our own world, our community, we're facing some uncertainty.

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And that's the most benign way I can put it.

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We're facing some uncertainty.

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And things may get worse before they get better.

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But at the same time, remember these four words.

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Jacob, I have loved.

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Jacob, I have loved.

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In the New Testament economy, who's Jacob?

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We are.

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The church is called the Israel of God.

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By none less than Paul.

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Galatians 3, he says, those of faith are the sons of Abraham.

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Those of faith are the sons of Abraham.

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Jacob I have loved.

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The church, so to speak, is Jacob.

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We are God's loved ones.

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We are his people.

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And just as God always loved Jacob, just as he always loved Israel, he loves the church.

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And he loves us enough to refine us.

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And he loves us enough to prompt us, to move us outside of our comfort zones.

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And if we are doing that which is wrong, or if we're not doing fully what is right, he'll remind us.

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And he'll nudge us back into good practice.

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Sometimes that nudge is not easy, but it has an important and critical outcome for us.

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As a member of God's church, you should be an encouragement.

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No matter what comes, no matter what storms, so to speak, enter in.

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It's an encouragement to know, Jacob, I have loved.

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no matter who you are, no matter what you've done,

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God loves you, and that love won't dissipate,

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no matter what happens in the world around us

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in the time before us.

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Let's pray.